Blackstone Group Co-founder Peter Peterson Dies at 91

Peter Peterson, the former secretary of Commerce under Richard Nixon who later co-founded the private-equity firm Blackstone Group, died Tuesday at the age of 91.

The sun of Greek immigrants, Peterson “lived a long, wonderful life that embodied the American Dream,” his family said in a statement.

Born in Kearney, Nebraska, Peterson landed in Washington in the early ’70s as Nixon’s assistant for international economic affairs. He was a promoted to Commerce secretary in 1973 and spent a year in the job before leaving to serve as chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers.

After turning around the struggling bank, Peterson teamed up with Stephen A. Schwarzman to found Blackstone Group in 1985 with $400,000. By the time the firm went public in 2007, it was managing more than $88 billion. With his retirement the following year, Peterson became billionaire.

“Pete and I worked together for 35 years,” Schwarzman, who remains Blackstone’s CEO, told Bloomberg Tuesday. “He was a great partner. We both had no idea when we started Blackstone in 1985 that the firm would grow to this scale and importance. The firm was his pride and joy.”

After leaving Blackstone, Peterson focused on philanthropy and his twin crusades against government debt and for the “reform” of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

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The immigration hardliners’ takeover continues, but this move might tick off McConnell

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the immigration hard-liner who was expected to be President Trump’s pick to coordinate immigration policy, will instead be chosen to take over for the embattled official who has overseen the legal immigration system, according to two people briefed on the situation.

The official, L. Francis Cissna, whose role as the head of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has included overseeing a visa system that many White House aides view as broken, has submitted to pressure to step down, the two people said.

Mr. Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, is expected to be tapped to replace Mr. Cissna, the two people said. Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Cuccinelli in recent days to help coordinate policy across agencies, akin to the “immigration czar” job that the president has considered creating for months. The move startled officials at the White House and at the Department of Homeland Security, where one West Wing official said Mr. Cuccinelli would work.

For now, he will be used to move out Mr. Cissna, the people familiar with the move said. But Mr. Cissna, who was supported by a number of immigration restrictionists, held a Senate-confirmed role. And people close to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has been a target of Mr. Cuccinelli’s in the past, said that the former attorney general’s chances of being confirmed were close to zero, creating immediate questions about the next steps in the process.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of President Trump’s plan to build a wall along the southern border with money Congress never appropriated for that purpose. …

Gilliam wrote that the government’s position “that when Congress declines the Executive’s request to appropriate funds, the Executive may simply find a way to spend those funds ‘without Congress’ does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic.”

The law the administration invoked to shift funds allows transfers for “unforeseen” events. Gilliam said the government’s claim that wall construction was “unforeseen” “cannot logically be squared” with Trump’s many demands for funding dating back to early 2018 and even in the campaign. … About $1 billion has been moved from military pay and pension accounts, transfers that Gilliam ruled against Friday, but no money has been transferred from the emergency military construction fund for which the president declared a state of emergency in February.

Facebook remains very concerned about false information circulating on the platform

Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House Speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.

The viral clip shows Pelosi – who has publicly angered Donald Trump in recent days – speaking at an event, but it has been slowed down to give the impression she is slurring her words.

Trump v Pelosi: how a ‘stable genius’ president met his match Read more

… Despite the apparently malicious intent of the video’s creator, Facebook has said it will only downgrade its visibility in users’ newsfeeds and attach a link to a third-party fact checking site pointing out that the clip is misleading. As a result, although it is less likely to be seen by accident, the doctored video will continue to rack up views.

Dating as far back as the Pentagon Papers case and beyond, journalists have been receiving and reporting on information that the government deemed classified. Wrongdoing and abuse of power were exposed. With the new indictment of Julian Assange, the government is advancing a legal argument that places such important work in jeopardy and undermines the very purpose of the First Amendment. The administration has gone from denigrating journalists as “enemies of the people” to now criminalizing common practices in journalism that have long served the public interest. Meantime, government officials continue to engage in a decades-long practice of overclassifying information, often for reasons that have nothing to do with national security and a lot to do with shielding themselves from the constitutionally protected scrutiny of the press.

Rep. Chip Roy became the man who delayed $19.1 billion in disaster aid to communities throughout the country on Friday.

House leaders had planned to pass a multibillion-dollar disaster assistance measure by unanimous consent, but the Texas Republican objected on the floor.

Roy took issue with passing the measure without a roll call vote. He also complained that the legislation lacks offsets to prevent it from driving up the deficit and that congressional leaders left off billions of dollars in emergency funding President Donald Trump seeks for handling the inflow of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nadler reassures people that he’s ok after appearing to pass out at event

House Judiciary Chairman Nadler: “Appreciate everyone’s concern. Was very warm in the room this morning, was obviously dehydrated and felt a bit ill. Glad to receive fluids and am feeling much better. Thank you for your thoughts.”

Sen. Menendez says the Trump admin has “formally informed Congress that it is invoking an obscure provision of the Arms Export Control Act to eliminate the statutorily-required Congressional review of the sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others.”

Scary moment at this press conference now, @RepJerryNadler appears to be dehydrated, perhaps low sugar as the conference was underway. They are clearing the room so he can get medical assistance. He’s conscious, drinking water and has just been fed an orange

Conflicting so obviously with Roe V. Wade, the law is likely to be blocked

Planned Parenthood and the Alabama Women’s Center on Friday filed suit against the state of Alabama to block the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.

The near-total ban, signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on May 15, would criminalize abortion in almost all circumstances — including cases of rape and incest — and punish doctors with up to 99 years in prison. Without any challenges, the law was set to go into effect in as soon as six months.

The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, sets off a chain of events that both sides say is likely to lead to a years-long court battle. State lawmakers have said they passed the law specifically to bring the case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which they see as having the most antiabortion bench in decades. The bill was designed to challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by arguing that a fetus is a person and is therefore due full rights.

That provision said patients cannot be turned away because they are transgender, nor can they be denied coverage if they need a service that’s related to their transgender status.

The announcement follows a series of moves that bolster efforts by religious conservatives to narrowly define gender and gender protections. Earlier this month, the administration finalized rules making it easier for health workers and institutions to deny treatment to people if it would violate their religious or moral beliefs.

Prominent publishers are very worried about the Julian Assange espionage case

NYT’s Dean Baquet: “Obtaining & publishing information that the government would prefer to keep secret is vital to journalism & democracy. The new indictment is a deeply troubling step toward giving the government greater control over what Americans are allowed to know.”

Hannity has an hour-long prime time show, no editorial supervision, and the ear of the president. What could go wrong?

… Hannity, who consistently dominates the ratings across all cable news outlets, brazenly ignores … [Fox’s news standards]. And news-side employees who spoke to The Daily Beast believe it’s because no one at the network is willing to control the ratings-leading host.

A blaring example of that is Hannity’s treatment of claims from guests whose dubious “reporting” would never pass muster on Fox’s hard news shows. The most commonly cited example of this is Trump-boosting Fox News contributor Sara Carter, whose news credibility is so questionable that, as Mediaite reported in March, Fox News executives allegedly told Hannity to stop calling her an “investigative reporter” on his show.

“Fox News executives have asked Hannity to stop using this title on the grounds that Carter’s reporting is not vetted, and passes none of the network’s editorial guidelines,” the media news site reported. And even without any such dictate, Hannity’s hyping of “reporters” who don’t meet Fox’s news standards would be considered troublesome at any mainstream outlet.

Nevertheless, Hannity has persisted.

In fact, according to a review of Fox News transcripts, he has only gotten more defiant since he was reportedly scolded by executives. This year, Hannity has referred to Carter as an “investigative reporter” at least 18 times, two-thirds of which came after he was told to stop. In several of those instances, Hannity even slapped a network-wide stamp of approval on Carter, calling her a “Fox News investigative reporter.”